Azazel

I saw an early screening of The Dark Tower last night. I love the books, and I knew going in I had to separate myself from them. The movie is basically taking the ground work of The Gunslinger and the Tower and making an entirely different story with a few references to the source material. Once you get passed the fact that the movie is in no way shape or form the story from the books you can enjoy it for what it is. It's not what I hoped for but I didn't leave the theater mad about what I got, it just made me want to read the books again.

I really wish Robb had lasted just one more Tribal Council in Thailand. I would have loved to see the reformed Robb interact with Clay and try to apologize for the whole strangling him thing... and just seeing him try to deal with Jan would have been great. He's one person I'm really sad didn't make the merge... or in this case when both tribes lived together.

I take back any bad thing I said about Thailand, this season is amazing.

Until Jon gets all the pieces of Exodia

Oh wow, the villains of Marquesas are Paschal and Neleh. They spend the entire first half about how they want to play fair and not use alliances or manipulate people... but they are in an alliance the entire time. They then form a 5 person alliance to take out the Rotu 4 for being arrogant, then brag in front of them about how they only want people who deserve it to win. They are straight up saying people shouldn't be in alliances, so lets form an alliance and vote them all out. They aren't bad or mean people by any means, but they go on a power trip and are very holier than thou about the entire thing. This is a weird season.

For whatever reason (laziness) I watched the recap episode to see if they were worth it. It at least showed Sean/Vee/Kathy/Paschal/Neleh making the alliance to take down the Rotu 4. Also it showed more personality for the General then the rest of the season combined... in that his luxury item was a voodoo doll which is kind of hilarious. It also makes me wish luxury items were still a thing, they just need to say no to flags, pain and notebooks. It tells you a lot about the people like Robb bringing a god damn skateboard to the beach or Brandon bringing chapstick.

When I think about it, I was a little upset that one of my favorite characters was written out of the show (Victarion Greyjoy). Then I realized they basically just most of what I liked about him and gave it to Euron, so I guess, yay!

In a confessional he calls him "a big time queer" but a while later when they are having a heated discussion about voting together or not, Rob ends it with a "by the way, you're gay, right?" and John just sighs and says "thanks for outing me". He does say in a confessional he has been out for a while though so he may have meant that he hadn't told his tribemates or something.

Rob just tries to stir shit up, it can be somewhat entertaining but he just comes off as unlikable. Also, considering the Varner/Zeke thing was such a big deal, Rob basically does the same thing to John in this season. John doesn't care but it was interesting to see that it kind of happened way back at the beginning. Sean on the other hand, I just don't like. He complains so much and says even more uncomfortable things than Rob. Like saying Hunter is treating him like a slave because he was asked to get water. Although I think the absolute funniest thing in this season so far is Sean and Vee on beach. The other 5 Rotu are in the water and Sean is talking about how they are minorities and how everyone is going to just assume they are in an alliance. This is happening while they are away from the rest of the tribe talking which is probably a bigger indicator of an alliance. Secondly, they absolutely should be making an alliance at that moment.

Its not just that he insults people, he also plays one of the worst games possible. He tries to stir up shit so everyone just votes him out. At least he caused his own downfall. The Rotu 4 were going to vote for Kathy until Rob told her and caused a shit storm, and scared Kathy enough that she bossed a challenge to win immunity. Which is weird because Boston Rob basically votes himself out here and his ally Tyson does the same in HvV.

Started Marquesas again, I'm still not sure why this is supposed to be considered a good season. Rob and Sean both really make me dislike this season.

I just realized, Teresa Cooper may have accidentally made one of the best moves in early Survivor by voting for Lex. Lex went insane which I'm sure she couldn't have planned and it completely flipped Kelly. Frank, T-Bird, Kim P, Brandon and Kelly could have taken over the game if Brandon was smart.

Then immediately lost to Jon Snow while killing a bunch of his own men. Even if he won the battle he would have lost the North. Robb had a good track record until his wang got him into trouble.

In terms of storylines, Brandon vs Frank is one of the most ridiculous season long angles. From the Elders vs Mallrats in the first 4 episodes, the swap happens and Brandon tells people that Frank hates women despite his closest friend being Teresa. Then come the merge Samburu has a chance to actually take over with Kelly flipping but Brandon won't do it just because he doesn't want to vote with Frank. To be fair, he was probably in the same position either way, maybe slightly better with Samburu because of Kim P. The cherry on top is him using his jury questions to try and take a dig at Frank after they were both voted out and I have no idea why he expected Ethan to answer how he wanted.

I really enjoy Africa for some reason, I think I just like the grouping of Lex, Tom and Ethan as players. Frank Garrison is absolutely the castaway that becomes infinitely better on a rewatch. I also have such a crush on Kim Powers, I would put her probably top 3 most attractive Survivor Players ever.

Also, here is something that blew my mind. The most challenge wins in a single season is 17, by Tom Westman....and Boo Bernis. Also, Sandra Diaz-Twine is also the only Sole Survivor to never win an individual challenge... which she did in both Pearl Islands and Heroes vs Villians.

Something became very clear to me rewatching Outback. Jerri Manthey is an absolutely horrible Survivor player. Her social game sucks since everyone but Amber and Mitchell hate her. Post merge there are a bunch of scenes where she is worried that Tina and Keith are going to flip on the Ogakor alliance, completely unaware that she is the one in the minority because she is so sure Colby is with her. Also, something that stood out a lot, Jerri is probably the first major #blindside but they don't even cut to her when she gets the fourth vote, its just a shot of Probst. They read the last vote and... nothing happens. You would think this would have had some kind of moment on the show, but nothing.

I still wish we had Wyman Manderly the book character.

I wanted to see the difference between the new and old seasons in retrospect, and the only other thing I have interest in watching right now is Game of Thrones